118 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



in this couiitiv atout four-fifths are whole nuts and the remainder shelled 

 meats. Makinjj due allowance for the shells the importations have been as 

 follows for the years named helow: 



Year. Pounds. 



1902 14,149,316 



1903 15,004,378 



1904 26,61.5,898 



1905 24,708,156 



1906 28,423,306 



1907 31,453,577 



The production of walnuts in California amounts to about 15,000,000 

 pounds annually. The consumption of walnuts in the United States is in- 

 creasing at the rate of about 4,000,000 pounds per year As the average 

 crop from groves in full bearing does not exceed 1,000 pounds per year, 

 it will require the addition of 30,000 acres of full-bearing groves to supply 

 the amount we now import and the addition of at least 4,000 acres annually 

 to keep up with the growth of consumption. 



OUR FAVORABLE CONDITIOXS. 



We are informed by horticultural authorities that the walnut of com- 

 mierce, commonly called the English walnut, originated in Persia. Not- 

 withstanding this it does not do its best as a nut-producer in places where 

 the summer heat is great. It was long ago learned in California that the 

 walnut gave best returns near the ocean where summer temperature is 

 modified by cool ocean breezes. It is also well known that the walnut has 

 never been grown profitably in the Southern States. Our mild summers 

 and other climatic conditions in Western Oregon appear to be peculiarly 

 favorable to the growth of walnuts and the production of nuts of the 

 highest quality. Trees which are now more than forty years old are mak- 

 ing vigorous growth and promise to increase in size fur many years to 

 come. 



WHAT SHOULD BE EXPECTED. 



No person who has studied any agricultural or horticultural industry 

 can have failed to observe the mischief done by the general acceptance of 

 too sanguine anticipations of profit. Whenever persons are entering on 

 the production of an article with the belief that they will obtain there- 

 from profits larger than are reasonably to be expected from any safe busi- 

 ness, the kind of men who would be most likely to succeed in the profitable 

 production of that article turn their attention to the production of some 

 other article. This naturally results in many failures and few successes 

 on the part of those who do engage in the industry; an inferior average 

 product, and general disgust with the industry. 



The walnut tree on the Pacific Coast often begins to bear when three or 

 four years old, but it can not reasonably be expected that a walnut grove 

 will pay before it is eight years old. The United States census of 1900 

 showed that (.'.slifornia had 701,426 walnut trees which yielded in the 

 previous year 10,619,97.5 pounds of nuts. The crop of the state for 1907 

 was about 14,000,000 pounds of nuts, or about twenty pounds for each tree 

 standing in the state in 1900, the greater part of which were already bear- 

 ing in 1900. As the majority of the walnut groves in (.'alifornia have about 

 twenty-five trees to the acre, the crop of the past year would average for 

 all groves, good, bad and indifferent, about .500 pounds per acre. Mr El- 

 wood Cooper, one of California's most exj)erienced walnut growers, as well 

 as most prominent horticulturists, has stated that an average yield of 

 1,000 pounds [)cr acre is as much as can be expected when walnuts are 

 grown on a commiM-cial scale. Much larger yields than this have been 

 reported from some, groves, and the yields of isolated trees are sometinies 



